Still snowing in Toronto. Roads are barely ploughed and the city, perhaps because it’s a long weekend, has given up entirely on the sidewalks. People who do try to clear their own running out of places to put it
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Friday & early yesterday, I thought I’d see lots of snow removal happening while there was a break in the snow so we’d be in better shape for this round. At least in the downtown/east areas it didn’t appear to happen. Even bus routes look treacherous out there
I went out earlier this morning (to help a neighbour push his van out), and then a brief walk in Leaside around one. I just tried to stroll down Bayview and I was only able to do about 20m before I gave up, retreated to my place and made a campari and soda.
The contracted plowing company kindly left 2 feet of icy compacted snow in my driveway four times over the last two days, and since I know I should never keep what doesn't belong to me, I keep returning it to the road.
I just looked at the plowTO map. It appears nearly all the sidewalk plows are at the depots and North York hasn't seen much in the way of street plowing for hours.
Since neighbourhood sidewalk plowing was introduced for the old city, I don't think any residential sidewalk has actually been plowed west of the DVP. It's clear that the contractor didn't hire the staff for it and is hoping council won't notice (they haven't).
Not true; the area around Christie Pits (at least) sometimes gets service. They even plowed a week or two back, after a minor snowfall, albeit after most of us had already done it ourselves.
And even once they do plough everything, there's a good chance they'll leave mounds several feet high at the crosswalk edges so you'll still have to scramble over.
We’re in Toronto for the weekend (leaving behind even more snow in Stratford) and I am happy to be called “reasonably nimble” - close to 10,000 outdoor steps walking to get brunch groceries this a.m. to treat our host and getting to-and-from the CAA theatre this afternoon. Feels like more!
Massive swathes of sidewalks untouched by city crews all day on the west side of downtown. This must’ve been a budget decision, not to send out full crews on a long weekend Sunday
Problem is, some years we get hardly any snow. What's the right balance, having a huge contract and waste money on the off chance this is the snowiest week for 50+ years... I'm willing to let this one go, much as it sucks I dunno how they'd keep up.
Most side streets and alleys have also run out of places to put the snow that people have shovelled. Will be a mess when people have to dig out to go to work on Tuesday.
they also didn't plow them several days ago during the last snowfall during the week (and at Y&E I've never seen the sidewalks plowed since they added it to the budget to apparently clear them city-wide)
They just drove the sidewalk tractor over the snow here, no actual plowing. And the truck went down the road, again no actual plowing. Good thing we contracted all this out to super efficient 8675309 Ontario Inc..
Btws, been around today, in east and north york - a lot of activity with snow plows. And from the replies, same in Riverdale. Snow Removal - that is missing.
Not sure about your street, but I am in East York on a secondary street, and only in the last 12 hrs have there been 3 visits from snow plows and that many on side walks. What they need is snow removal, bcs the mountains are huge and they are just being swaped from one place to the other.
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https://bsky.app/profile/ariabehbuh.bsky.social/post/3lidauthtw22u
https://www.toronto.ca/services-payments/streets-parking-transportation/road-maintenance/winter-maintenance/plowto/#location=&lat=43.673412&lng=-79.408843&zoom=12
The City is aware that some sidewalk details are not currently available on PlowTO and are making every effort to address the situation.
https://bsky.app/profile/rudydotca.bsky.social/post/3licroif4ck2r